24, how season 5 SHOULD be
by soswimmer13
Summary: Starts whenever we want Tony to wake up. Ignores anything on the show that tries to depress tonymichelle fans. This is my first fanfic so i dont really know how to rate it!
1. He awakes

1Chapter 1: He awakes

He wakes up in a hospital bed. At first, he cannot for the life of him figure out how he got there. He looks at his hands, they are bandaged. He can feel that he has a tube down his throat, and that more bandages cover his face. He moves a bit, trying to look around, and feels that he has more bandages covering his back. His back HURTS!

And then he remembers. Watching the news that morning, drinking his coffee. Yelling for Michelle to come in when the weather report was interrupted with breaking news. News that affected them more than the average LA couple. Former President David Palmer had been assassinated. It wasn't the first time someone had tried either. But he and Michelle had helped to prevent his assassination before. Michelle. She had wanted to go in to CTU, to help out. He had told her not too. He didn't want to go back there. She had walked out the front door to the car. He had been canceling their morning meeting. The explosion. He was knocked to the ground.

He ran. He had only one thought in his head. Michelle. He couldn't find a pulse. She wouldn't - or couldn't (but he could not think like that) - open her eyes.

He forces his own eyes open. Making himself look around more carefully, trying to find some clue to tell him where he is. He realizes where he is - the place he did not want to come. The place that makes it certain that this was really happening. He is at CTU.

A medic hurries over, noticing that he is awake. He explains, rather unnecessarily in Tony's opinion, that there is a tube down his throat, helping him breathe. Tony knows the routine, and follows the doctor's orders to get the tube out of his throat. The medic informs him that he was taken to CTU for safekeeping, but Tony already knows that. There is only one thing he wants to know, he needs to know. Interrupting the medic, he tries to speak, forgetting how dry a tube can make your throat. He swallows and tries again. "Michelle?"

But the medic has already turned away. The look in Tony's eyes scared him. They burned with a fear. A horrible knowing fear, the kind a caged animal has. The medic knows what Tony wants to know, and he KNOWS that he does not want to be the one to tell him. He has heard about this man's temper. About how he was willing to do anything to save his wife's life. What would he do when he hears she is dead?

The medic knows that he does not have to tell this to this man. He was given orders to call the D.O.D. liason the second the patient awakes. He know that they want to tell Tony the news personally. He sighs in relief, and places the call.


	2. News?

1Chapter 2: News?

Audrey was worried, she hadn't heard from Jack in a while. She knew he was busy - and knew that she should be too - but she wanted to hear his voice again. Just hours ago she had thought he was dead, was reminded of that horrible day when he "died". CTU didn't seem so horrible anymore now that Jack had not died here.

She was waiting for Jack to send her and Chloe some information that he said he had. When her phone rang, she expected it to be him.

"Jack?" she answered her phone, slightly panicked - a far cry from her usual calm, collected 'Raines'.

"Um, no. Is this Ms. Raines, the D.O.D. liaison?"

"Yes. Sorry, I was expecting another call. What is this concerning?"

"I was told to contact you when Mr. Almeida regained consciousness."

"And he has? What does he remember?"

"He's asking for his wife."

Audrey sighed, "I'll be right down." She did not know how she was going to face Tony. She told Chloe where she was going, and hurried down to the infirmary. Chloe had, quite uncharacteristically volunteered to accompany her, but Audrey had shrugged it off, knowing Tony would not want to deal with Chloe's "personality disorder", no matter how good her intentions were.

Tony looked up, surprised, when Audrey walked in. She seemed, happy? He thought she would hate being in CTU now. Unless...

Tony pushed all those thoughts from his mind. Focusing on one. Only one. The only one that mattered to him. Michelle.

"Michelle?" Now Tony asked her, the look in his eyes resigned, as if he already knew that she had bad news for him.

But Audrey was, smiling? This did not make any sense. How could she be in this kind of a mood? He knew how crazy this day must be, even though he had only been awake for a few minutes. He had worked at CTU enough to know that the only time this part of the building was this quiet was when other parts, namely the bullpen, were insane.

She came right up to his bed, and muttered, barely moving her lips, "We're still worried about there being a mole in here."

"So what else is new?" Tony asked, with a wry look on his face.

Audrey half smiled, and said even more softly, "Michelle is alive. That's what we know. Her injuries were too severe to be treated here, so we checked her into a hospital under a different name."

Tony sighed, but tried to hide it. He didn't want the mole to figure out that Michelle was alive, simply because he was showing such relief upon hearing the news. Suddenly, he panicked again.

"And Katie?" he blurted out. "Did someone go pick her up?"

Audrey was stunned. Who was Katie? She asked "Katie? Who's Katie?"

Tony fought back a grin. "Our daughter, she's nine months old. She's at the babysitters. Michelle and I were supposed to have a huge meeting this morning. I was on the phone to cancel it when the car blew up." With that last statement, his eyes dimmed.


	3. Tony almost has a heart attack

1Chapter 3: Tony almost has a heart attack (in a good way)

Tony was just about to ask Audrey if someone could go get Katie, when Audrey's phone rang.

"Audrey Raines," she answered, then sighed and blurted, "Unhh, you had me worried Jack."

Tony gasped, and his face froze in a very uncomfortable expression. His mind was racing. How did Audrey know that Jack was alive? Was this day so bad that Jack had to "come back to life"? He grew even more worried for Michelle's safety.

And then he wondered. Was he really awake? Which parts of this were real? Was this some massively huge nightmare? Were he and Michelle still in bed, was their big meeting still in the morning? Or was he unconscious on their front lawn, with her non-responsive body lying in his arms? His breathing quickened to a panicked rate, and Audrey finally noticed the state he was in, and asked Jack to hold on.

"Tony. This is really happening. I know that you and Michelle and Chloe helped Jack fake his death. I understand why you couldn't tell me, I do. The problem is that someone else found out that Jack had faked his death, and who helped him. That's why Jack had to come back today. Chloe had to call him, because there were people trying to kill her too. Jack had to come back and help her, and prove that he did not assassinate Palmer. Whoever found out was trying to frame Jack for your, Michelle's, Chloe's and President Palmer's deaths. They never expected for you guys to survive, for Chloe to call Jack in for help."

"So where is Jack anyway?"

"Well, the day got a little more complicated, nothing new to you guys." Audrey paused, taking a deep breath. Tony wondered how much worse things could have gotten. They had survived nuclear and biological attacks. "Jack is currently chasing down some missing Sentox gas. Apparently the man who recruited him to work here, Henderson or something, has something to do with it."

Henderson. This was too much for Tony to take in all at once, but he nodded in agreement anyway. He too knew Henderson, but only by reputation. He was one of the people Jack had ratted out from within CTU. He turned his attention once more to Audrey, but she was talking to Jack.

"No, I haven't been able to get a hold of her yet. Yes. I know that. There was no answer the last few times. Yes, I'll try again right now." She turned to Tony, "I hate to leave you, but I need to place some calls and do some things for Jack. I'll be back as soon as I can, or I can send someone down to sit with you?"

"I'll be fine. You just do what it is you have to, don't make anyone come down here. Everyone is bound to be really busy anyways."

"Well, see you when I can."

Audrey left, and Tony remembered the one thing he had wanted her to do for him. To send someone to go pick up Katie. He sighed, realizing he was being selfish. Katie would be perfectly safe where she was.


End file.
